I went out today and tried to find a Prius to test drive. I know they are going out the door as fast, or faster than the dealerships can get them in, but I figured they would keep at least ONE on the floor for people to test.
Anyway, I was talking to the salesman at my last stop about them, the honda and the Corolla (which is one of my alternate choices, if I decide to go with a regular car).
He said that the Honda Hybrids have to be plugged in. I don't recall seeing that anywhere.
Ok, I figured that was the case. The salesman seemed to be full of it anyway, which means, even IF I don't get a hybrid and go with the Corolla, I won't be buying from Elway's dealership.
Be very careful who you trust. When I was considering trading my Civic Hybrid for an Accord Hybrid, the Honda salesperson began telling me all about how my Civic worked, and it was all wrong. For example, the Civic shuts off the A/C if you're in Econ mode and you autostop. The Accord did not. When I brought up this observation with the salesman, he spent several minutes trying to convince me that the A/C does run when autostopped in my Civic. I guess I missed that in the 1800 hours (or so) I've spent behind the wheel (the salesperson, by the way, didn't own a hybrid either). I think many of these guys believe the same misinformation the media puts out. If they are educating themselves about hybrids by watching the news, they are about as misinformed as they can be. If you have questions, you're better off here...
There is nothing wrong with making your career sales. Millions of people out there are in sales. But what differentiates between an honest a good sales staff and just a pusher is how they approach the sale.
If they want the sale to lead to more sales in the future, they will work toward building trust and selling a product which actually meets the needs of the customer inside the financial constraints they have. The idea being, if they are happy with the service at the sale, and service after the sale is good, they will come back another time when they need another like product. This approach means limited puffery and a true understanding of the competitions' products. Sometimes your product is going to be better than the competition, sometimes not. The idea is to understand the differences and be straight about it.
A good salesperson is going to understand the customer only a few minutes after they walk in. I knew what I wanted when I got to the dealership. As far as I was concerned the salesman was there to facilitate my acquisition of the vehicle and to work up a price, and to clarify questions about total taxes and fees etc. I didn’t need a salesman there to explain the car to me. I found a salesman that understood that and proceeded with our dealings that way. The salesman should figure all of those things out in the first few minutes with the customer. It should also make his job easier to find out where the customer is in their purchase and go from that point. Rather than dragging you around the lot showing cars, they can focus on one or two cars and try to get the right price, color and package, etc.
The problem with car sales is the turnover. Pushers don’t stay at a dealership all that long, usually. They get there, sell a few cars, have lots of dry days, are at the bottom of the pecking order and eventually can’t make it because the commissions are too low for them to live on. So they head to a different dealer and start all over again. Now, if they took a different approach, such as specified above, they might be able to make more sales.
Buying a car is still buyer beware.
It has been said: Hybrid drivers come in 3 flavors, greenie, techie and cheapie. Pick any 2.
2005 Prius, Melinium Silver over gray, package 5 (AI)
Ok, next question...
Eric the Grey
